Various types of commercial on-line directory services are available for access by the general public. These services are generally structured to include both "yellow pages" information as well as "white pages" information. By accessing the directory service through the Internet via particular web pages, a user can typically enter information about a third party, including such items as first name, last name, address, etc. The user then selects a search, or go, type button to initiate the search. Once initiated, the on-line directory service provider performs a computer search of various databases to determine whether a match is available. If so, the information is then displayed to the user.
Providing on-line information about a third party to a user, however, raises various issues regarding the privacy of that third party. With telephone numbers, there are currently ways to keep a number private if the third party does not wish the general public to have access to his or her telephone 1number. This usually takes the form of the person having an unlisted telephone number so that it is not actually entered into a yellow pages or white pages paper directory. On-line Internet directories are generally created using the paper directory or an authorized electronic version of those listings. Therefore, when the on-line Internet directories are created, there is little chance that an unlisted telephone number will be available therein, since it was unobtainable from the source.
Keeping a person's e-mail address private, however, is not so easily accomplished. One system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,742,769 provides a system whereby a particular party can register with the directory service provider and receive, as a benefit of their registration, the ability to configure their listing for various levels of privacy. In particular, the '769 patent allows a user to display the third party's listing information, display no listing information, display portions of the listing, or display an e-mail address as a "knock--knock" item. If the user selects the knock--knock feature, the general public is allowed to send an e-mail message to the particular party without actually having obtained that third party's e-mail address. If the third party wishes to respond to the user, then he or she may send a reply e-mail, thus giving that user his or her actual e-mail address.
The '769 registration system for altering the display of an e-mail address and providing a knock--knock feature is useful, however, it has a number of disadvantages. A first disadvantage is that unless a user is aware of that particular on-line directory service, then the responsibility of determining whether a user would like to keep his or her listing information private is up to the on-line directory service. It is cumbersome, as well as unlikely, for an on-line directory service to take the time necessary to poll each individual listing as to whether he or she would prefer to have their information public or private. Thus, it is highly likely for an on-line directory service to unwittingly make public, email address information that a person would prefer to have kept private.
A second disadvantage is that the '769 patent is that it is cumbersome. It appears to require the person to register with the on-line directory service and to select a privacy option before being able to allow the third party listing to take advantage of such a feature. Most people are unwilling to go to the effort of registering in order to take advantage of such a system, especially since the person may not even know that their email address is listed with that particular directory service and further may feel that since the listing is shown publicly to begin with, there would be no point in now making it private.
A third problem is that spammers routinely gather e-mail information from on-line directory services and resell this information to individuals and businesses for marketing purposes. These e-mail addresses are sold in large batches and contain e-mail addresses from all over the world. While spam e-mail is undesirable in the United States simply because it wastes computing resources and is a nuisance to clear out of one's e-mail box, it is a much more significant problem in Europe where many countries charge their e-mail addressees for each piece of e-mail received.
Thus, a need exists for an on-line directory service that has an improved system for dealing with privacy issues regarding e-mail addresses. The present invention is directed to fulfilling this need.